There is No One at the Center of the Cross (Easter Meditation)

On the cross, Jesus said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Did he carry the sins of the world, or drop them?

The center of the cross is a place that is light and free, without sin or blame. At the center of the cross, Jesus carries nothing. If you load your cruelty, your bitterness, your blame upon his shoulders, he won’t take it personally.

Centered on the cross, Christ-Consciousness radiates without judgment, from a vanishing point beyond “sin.” In this center, there is no “I” to react or be offended, for “I” am crucified.

The center of the cross is the crossroad of paradox where opposites collide, annihilating one another in an explosion of pure awareness. In the center of paradox, concepts disappear. Awareness becomes available as free energy, no longer bound up in opposing viewpoints.

At the center of the cross, past and future dissolve into Presence. Joy and sorrow merge in Compassion. Matter and spirit fuse as the body of Grace. Centered in the place where there is no “I” to take it personally, forgiveness happens.

When we witness events from the center of the cross, through the gaze of the crucified, we see the world as it truly is: a mirage of shimmering pairs of opposites, appearing and dissolving in the clear sky of awareness. In such a shimmer, what possible good can it do to pass judgment or take sides?

Arrows of hatred cannot pierce the stillness or penetrate the silence of one who is centered on the cross. They fall back upon their source. Those who shoot them are destroyed by their own reactivity. Observing their self-destruction, one could assume that Christ-Consciousness has judged and damned them as “evil doers.” But divine silence has no need for retribution. Negative energy simply rebounds upon its source, finding no target in emptiness. All judgment is self-judgment.

Christ will never return to judge the world. At the end of time, there will be no Day of Wrath. Christ simply forgives, and the end of time is now. “Judge not, lest ye be judged. And you will be judged by the very judgment you pronounce on others” (Mat. 7:1). We have already judged ourselves.

If Christ rests weightlessly at the center of the cross, carrying no burden, how should we understand the sacrifice of “the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world?”

The weight of human sorrow is the heaviness of the past. It is a story we tell in our mind. The actual pain we experience in the present moment is not our problem. Our problem is the story we tell about it. By insisting on our old story, momentary pain becomes unendurable suffering.

But in the clear awareness of now, the story simply drops. The lamb who carries the sins of the world is our own innocent awareness, ever sacrificing, ever dissolving negative emotions from the past in the clear flame of Presence. Taking away the sins of the world is the work of Christ-Consciousness in each of us.

In Philippians 2:6, St. Paul uses the Greek word, kinosis, which means self-emptying. “Though Christ existed as the very form of divinity, he did not cling to God-like status, but emptied himself.” The kinosis of Christ is the anatta of Buddha: the healing compassion of no-self.

Jesus invites you to rest in unburdened lightness at the center of the cross: “Come unto me, you who are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest; for my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” (Mat. 11:28)

The center of the cross is your heart. Let your heart be spacious and hollow with the impeccable self-emptiness of Christ. The golden light that shines there is the light of your own Christ-Consciousness. It radiates pure Presence, dissolving the bitterness and sorrow of the past. Surrender your anger, your resentment, your jealousy, your fear to “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)